Life Expectancy In Britain Shows Nine Year Gap Between North And South

The Huffington Post UK

The vast North-South divide has been laid bare by new statistics showing that those born in Dorset live more than nine years longer than those in Blackpool.

The new report from the Office for National Statistics, stated: "The gap between the local areas with the highest and lowest life expectancy was wider for males than for females but there was no significant change in this inequality between 2005-07 and 2009-11.

"The distribution of life expectancy across England was characterised by a north-south divide, with people in local areas in the north generally living shorter lives than those in the south."

Blackpool, where life expectancy for men is nine years less than in Dorset

East Dorset has the highest average life expectancy for both men and women, the figures show.

Men there can expect to live to 83, 9.2 years more than men in Blackpool, Lancashire, which had the lowest male life expectancy at 73.8 years.

East Dorset had a life expectancy for women of 86.4 years, 7.1 years more than the lowest, the 79.3 year life expectancy in Manchester.

The statisitics are the so-called "life expectancy at birth" figures, which show how long people born in specific years can expect to live.

Life expectancy for men and women in England and Wales has increased by more than a year in less than a decade.

Women are now living to an average age of 82.8 years and men 78.8 years.

The results, gleaned from data for the period 2009 - 2011, is up from 81.7 years for women and 77.5 years for men in the period 2005 - 2007.